Its been more than a fortnight since the official Thanksgiving day but does it matter? Saying thanks is important. Isn't it? Or is the date too important?
We have William Shakespeare to help us :) Altering and quoting Juliet, Juliet of the "Romeo and Juliet" fame, I say "What's in a date? That thanks when said on any other day would mean no less gratitude". Yeah, I have been doing a lot of alter-and-quote lately. should reduce it :(
So, here I am, trying to thank all those who have been readers of the blog. This should be done some or the other day.
Let's go by the group.
First of all, thanks to the person who has been reading this blog from the very beginning days till today, regularly, almost every day, suffering through all the bad posts, enjoying the good ones and reading both the good and bad ones with equal interest and always waiting for new posts. Now most of you might actually guess I am thanking myself here. :)
Thanks to the irregularly regular readers, reading posts now and then, commenting on some, criticizing some others and helping me gain some readership.
Thanks to the forced-visitors, who when given the link to my blog, click on it and read the first post, click on random posts, read them and then forget about the blog and then visit the blog only when the link is sent again.
Thanks to the readers, who "do not" click when the link to the blog is sent fearing it might be a link to some unknown virus on the internet which would erase their hard disk. Thanks for being so careful, yes there are such viruses. Thanks for being careful, again :)
Thanks to the kind of readers who accidentally tumble upon my blog searching for -
1. "Swades mp3 download" - guys, u forgot the "free" word in your search box, otherwise you could have found the correct sites.
2. "Intermediate QUESTIONS and ANSWERS Andhra Pradesh" - Are the S.Chand and Vignan guides out of date that Intermediate students are searching for questions AND answers on the Internet. I pity them for being pointed to my blog, adding to their already existing list of confusions.
3. "Guide to the Spelling bee" - sorry guys, I am not so much into spelling bees, but thanks for visiting my blog on the path to your bigger quest.
4. "chalkpieces" - are chalkpieces so hi-tech now that one has to order them on amazon or something? Aren't they available at the nearby grocery store? Sorry guys, am not much into selling chalkpieces, though I was once busy stealing some. Anyway thanks to you too for visiting the blog.
Thanks to one and all.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Illusions...
The Taj Mahal.
Everybody would have heard about this masterpiece, the eternal symbol of love, the glorious beauty.
There I was, standing right before Taj Mahal, in awe, wondering at the no-words-to-describe monument. Everything else seemed so minute. I have seen nothing ever-so beautiful and might never see one until some romantic has a better way of expressing his love, which, might not be possible considering the resources needed. :) There is not one thing that is okay-ish about the mahal. Everything is just more than perfect. The sheer size of the monument, the grandeur of the four minarets, the as-white-as-snow marble and not to forget the intricate design on the walls, are all exceptional. One has to see it to believe it. I can't say more. So, I was standing before this Taj Mahal, admiring and cherishing that very moment feeling as small as a drop before the giant beauty.
Suddenly, the phone beside me rang, and the Taj Mahal disappeared into thin air without the slightest trace of the beauty I was seeing all that time. I realized I am now in Hyderabad, not in Agra, and it had been almost a week since my Agra trip and yet the illusions cease to stop. Every time I gaze into nothing, I see the Taj mahal forming from nowhere and this illusion of mine keeps recurring.
While Einstein was right about saying reality is just a persistent illusion, there should be some explanation as to why certain illusions out of these are more persistent than the others. May be the persistence is again linked to the forgetting-theory related to the brain. :) Much more complex than we can comprehend.
Coincidences never cease to exist with me. It was coincidental that besides these frequenting illusions, there is one more 'illusions' that I was part of in the recent days and that being Richard Bach's book - Illusions. Many of them have already said and keep saying the world's an illusion after all. I am not sure how true that is.
But one quote from Richard Bach might help explain my illusions about the Taj and the quote modified to suit the context is -
"If you want to be with the Taj, aren't you already there?"
May be I want to.
Everybody would have heard about this masterpiece, the eternal symbol of love, the glorious beauty.
There I was, standing right before Taj Mahal, in awe, wondering at the no-words-to-describe monument. Everything else seemed so minute. I have seen nothing ever-so beautiful and might never see one until some romantic has a better way of expressing his love, which, might not be possible considering the resources needed. :) There is not one thing that is okay-ish about the mahal. Everything is just more than perfect. The sheer size of the monument, the grandeur of the four minarets, the as-white-as-snow marble and not to forget the intricate design on the walls, are all exceptional. One has to see it to believe it. I can't say more. So, I was standing before this Taj Mahal, admiring and cherishing that very moment feeling as small as a drop before the giant beauty.
Suddenly, the phone beside me rang, and the Taj Mahal disappeared into thin air without the slightest trace of the beauty I was seeing all that time. I realized I am now in Hyderabad, not in Agra, and it had been almost a week since my Agra trip and yet the illusions cease to stop. Every time I gaze into nothing, I see the Taj mahal forming from nowhere and this illusion of mine keeps recurring.
While Einstein was right about saying reality is just a persistent illusion, there should be some explanation as to why certain illusions out of these are more persistent than the others. May be the persistence is again linked to the forgetting-theory related to the brain. :) Much more complex than we can comprehend.
Coincidences never cease to exist with me. It was coincidental that besides these frequenting illusions, there is one more 'illusions' that I was part of in the recent days and that being Richard Bach's book - Illusions. Many of them have already said and keep saying the world's an illusion after all. I am not sure how true that is.
But one quote from Richard Bach might help explain my illusions about the Taj and the quote modified to suit the context is -
"If you want to be with the Taj, aren't you already there?"
May be I want to.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
I write...
Two posts wouldn't do justice to such an intricate topic like "forgetting". There is much more to write about it, I feel. Like in the past two posts, the advantages of forgetting are not even touched upon, like - how forgetting certain things is good to us. :), The times when your teacher slapped you in front of the class, the first time you fell off your bicycle trying to pull a feat etc, etc. Forgetting is good, at least some times.
A third post on the same topic would be monotonous and boring. So let me 'write' something else.
Coming to writing, I think its a lot tough than blogging. As for blogging, you don't even have to think much to make a new post. In the worst case, when you can't think of anything else to write, just pick a random picture( most often your own ) and post it with some tagline/title and lo, you become a blogger. Not the same case with writing. You have to pick a pen, start thinking, which itself is a tough job, and then start building words and make meaningful structures out of them. Overall, its tough to be a writer. But I chose to do so, for this post.
So, here I am, 'writing' a sample post as the first written piece.
And yeah, lot of thinking has gone into writing this one. ;)
A third post on the same topic would be monotonous and boring. So let me 'write' something else.
Coming to writing, I think its a lot tough than blogging. As for blogging, you don't even have to think much to make a new post. In the worst case, when you can't think of anything else to write, just pick a random picture( most often your own ) and post it with some tagline/title and lo, you become a blogger. Not the same case with writing. You have to pick a pen, start thinking, which itself is a tough job, and then start building words and make meaningful structures out of them. Overall, its tough to be a writer. But I chose to do so, for this post.
So, here I am, 'writing' a sample post as the first written piece.
And yeah, lot of thinking has gone into writing this one. ;)
Monday, October 16, 2006
meeku telugu vachaa ?
Forgetting... I feel it is much more complex than I actually thought or expected or, in fact, wrote about in the previous post.
Just yesterday, I had witnessed a scene which brought back memories of a very very small discussion I had with one of my friends seven years ago. I didn't even realize I had actually remembered that discussion until I saw this scene.
A foreigner was sitting on the stairs of a big shopping mall. While she was waiting for somebody, she opened her HINDI book and started reading it in that short time she had.
Immediately the topic of foreign language vs. native language struck me and my mind went back seven years. That was the time when the Andhra Pradesh government was planning to change all the boards on local buses to Telugu. The names of the 'To' and 'From' on all buses would be written in Telugu and I guess even the registration numbers. Now this friend of mine was strongly criticizing this idea of the government. He didn't want the boards to be written in Telugu as he could not read or write in Telugu though he could speak :(. To his benefit and to many others' like him, the government did not go ahead and implement that idea. Otherwise the publisher of "Read Telugu in 5 days" would be competing with Ambanis in wealth.
While the idea of learning the language just to be able to read a bus board is slightly nonsensical, but how many of you think one has to be a literate in his native language. Unable to read your mother-tongue - Wouldn't it be pitiful?
Globalization - that's the term we use most often to explain this. People prefer learning English, French, German etc, leaving the very own native language, to be part of the broader world. How good is it !
Then, there would be no difference between the foreigner who has just landed and the person who has been a native staying here for all his life. Both equally strangers to the language and seeking the help of others trying to figure out the name of a recently released movie.:)
Which one are you or which one would you rather be?
Just yesterday, I had witnessed a scene which brought back memories of a very very small discussion I had with one of my friends seven years ago. I didn't even realize I had actually remembered that discussion until I saw this scene.
A foreigner was sitting on the stairs of a big shopping mall. While she was waiting for somebody, she opened her HINDI book and started reading it in that short time she had.
Immediately the topic of foreign language vs. native language struck me and my mind went back seven years. That was the time when the Andhra Pradesh government was planning to change all the boards on local buses to Telugu. The names of the 'To' and 'From' on all buses would be written in Telugu and I guess even the registration numbers. Now this friend of mine was strongly criticizing this idea of the government. He didn't want the boards to be written in Telugu as he could not read or write in Telugu though he could speak :(. To his benefit and to many others' like him, the government did not go ahead and implement that idea. Otherwise the publisher of "Read Telugu in 5 days" would be competing with Ambanis in wealth.
While the idea of learning the language just to be able to read a bus board is slightly nonsensical, but how many of you think one has to be a literate in his native language. Unable to read your mother-tongue - Wouldn't it be pitiful?
Globalization - that's the term we use most often to explain this. People prefer learning English, French, German etc, leaving the very own native language, to be part of the broader world. How good is it !
Then, there would be no difference between the foreigner who has just landed and the person who has been a native staying here for all his life. Both equally strangers to the language and seeking the help of others trying to figure out the name of a recently released movie.:)
Which one are you or which one would you rather be?
Sunday, October 08, 2006
to forget or not to !
How many of you remember the year the first battle of Panipat was fought?
If you are finding problems recalling the date, dont worry, you are sailing on the same boat as me. And for the others who know the answer, my guess is that you were a big fan of the "panipuri"-walla beside your school and thats how you remember the "Pani"-pat well. Yeah, history students and teachers are exempted from this question :)
How many of you have trouble recalling a childhood friend?
Now, this is real trouble. One fine day you get a message/mail from a childhood friend who claims to be your partner in stealing chalkpieces(the colored ones and the white ones too) from the classroom cupboard. You remember the class room - Class III B, you remember how fast you ran after finding that someone was following you, but you dont remember the guy who was your partner in that petty incident. Pretty bad isn't it?
Not that you wanted to forget and not that you didn't care to remember him. It just happens. And once you get to see him in person or in a picture, all memories of him flash in your mind. You suddenly remember all the childhood stories and you may even tell some more which he, now, doesn't remember. :)
Happens!! This is what wikipedia says too about remembering - We recognise things better than we can recall. And that is why the percentage of scoring in Multiple choice Questions is more, it seems - because we can recognise a correct answer easily than trying to recall it from the 'memory database'. I never realized this :) Now all scores make sense to me !!
Now the million dollar question. How many of you forget to wish friends on their birthdays?
I know, most of us (should I dare to say 50% or is it even more ?) do this. And what would the reason for this be? Simple. Its not about forgetting your friend's birthday. Just that you forgot what today's date was ;) I know, not many would buy that answer. But sometimes its true.
This seems like a reverse of the case mentioned above. You can recall a birthday easily but you fail to recognise when it comes. :(
On the whole, forgetting seems to be a complex phenomenon involving the brain, which in itself is a complex structure of millions of neurons, and also involving theories like these - recognition/recall/inaccessability of data etc.
Now, if you want to forget forgetting, its like fighting the brain with itself. Handling such massive biochemical reactions would be too hard I guess. Like the first battle of Panipat where Babur's 12000 men had to face One lakh soldiers of Ibrahim Lodhi. Who would win? Yes I do remember who won that battle of Panipat.
On a side note, I still couldn't comprehend the reason why history students are asked to remember all the historical dates and years !!
Now one more question - when was the Bastille prison in Paris stormed. I remember this one somehow :)
If you are finding problems recalling the date, dont worry, you are sailing on the same boat as me. And for the others who know the answer, my guess is that you were a big fan of the "panipuri"-walla beside your school and thats how you remember the "Pani"-pat well. Yeah, history students and teachers are exempted from this question :)
How many of you have trouble recalling a childhood friend?
Now, this is real trouble. One fine day you get a message/mail from a childhood friend who claims to be your partner in stealing chalkpieces(the colored ones and the white ones too) from the classroom cupboard. You remember the class room - Class III B, you remember how fast you ran after finding that someone was following you, but you dont remember the guy who was your partner in that petty incident. Pretty bad isn't it?
Not that you wanted to forget and not that you didn't care to remember him. It just happens. And once you get to see him in person or in a picture, all memories of him flash in your mind. You suddenly remember all the childhood stories and you may even tell some more which he, now, doesn't remember. :)
Happens!! This is what wikipedia says too about remembering - We recognise things better than we can recall. And that is why the percentage of scoring in Multiple choice Questions is more, it seems - because we can recognise a correct answer easily than trying to recall it from the 'memory database'. I never realized this :) Now all scores make sense to me !!
Now the million dollar question. How many of you forget to wish friends on their birthdays?
I know, most of us (should I dare to say 50% or is it even more ?) do this. And what would the reason for this be? Simple. Its not about forgetting your friend's birthday. Just that you forgot what today's date was ;) I know, not many would buy that answer. But sometimes its true.
This seems like a reverse of the case mentioned above. You can recall a birthday easily but you fail to recognise when it comes. :(
On the whole, forgetting seems to be a complex phenomenon involving the brain, which in itself is a complex structure of millions of neurons, and also involving theories like these - recognition/recall/inaccessability of data etc.
Now, if you want to forget forgetting, its like fighting the brain with itself. Handling such massive biochemical reactions would be too hard I guess. Like the first battle of Panipat where Babur's 12000 men had to face One lakh soldiers of Ibrahim Lodhi. Who would win? Yes I do remember who won that battle of Panipat.
On a side note, I still couldn't comprehend the reason why history students are asked to remember all the historical dates and years !!
Now one more question - when was the Bastille prison in Paris stormed. I remember this one somehow :)
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
expectation and reality
After a long break, I am back with a post in line with the 'Questions without answers' theme.
Why is an expected result, observed just once, believed to be more probable than an unexpected one occurring multiple times?
I have never seen a teller at a bank recheck the number of currency notes if the counting machine shows 100. But if it shows a 98, the teller rechecks until the machine shows 100.
Isn't the probability of a 98 note bundle becoming 100 same as the probability of 100 note one becoming 98?
Guess the world is just "optimistic".
How close is reality to expectations?
Why is an expected result, observed just once, believed to be more probable than an unexpected one occurring multiple times?
I have never seen a teller at a bank recheck the number of currency notes if the counting machine shows 100. But if it shows a 98, the teller rechecks until the machine shows 100.
Isn't the probability of a 98 note bundle becoming 100 same as the probability of 100 note one becoming 98?
Guess the world is just "optimistic".
How close is reality to expectations?
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
coincidence(s)
Tried finding some reasons, if not good reasons, but none of them impressed me. Seems like I have already made a valiant attempt to answer the question "why do I blog", in one of the posts in the past, but the reasons mentioned there now seem unimpressive. Change of perception, again, I guess. Reminds me of a proverb - source unknown, which goes like "The philosophy of one generation is common sense to the next generation". That explains why complex things in the past now seem simple and sometimes stupid. Anyway, I am back to random writing, leaving the reasons thing un-attempted.
Coincidences amuse me a lot. Come September 5th, I am reminded of all the coincidences that happened on this particular day a few years back. It was teachers day as usual. And it was Ganesh Chathurthi too. A coincidence in itself, that the teachers day fell on the birthday of the God considered a maestro/guru of education. Another coincidence being that Mother Teresa passed away that very day. So, in total, this day brings memories of all these incidents, good and bad, all happening on the same day making the day important in more than one ways.
Coincidence of ideas is what brought me to write about coincidences. Sometimes when I see a new software product or a new portal, I feel I have thought about this idea sometime in the past and how the idea of the product coincided with mine. I know, most of us programmers feel the same. But what separates us and them is initiative, and most importantly, vision, I guess.
One more coincidence is that I have already written a post about coincidence in the past :).
And yeah, in the meanwhile we had Blogger's day, the 31st of August*. Happy blogging to all bloggers. I am sure this one is not popularized by the greeting card companies. Whoever did it, it comes as a boon for people like me waiting for a topic to fill in some text and post it on my blog so that my reader(s) don't see the same post when they visit the blog.
* - For the unaware, 31st of August when written in DDMM format - 3108 looks like BLOG, hence it is considered Bloggers day.
Coincidences amuse me a lot. Come September 5th, I am reminded of all the coincidences that happened on this particular day a few years back. It was teachers day as usual. And it was Ganesh Chathurthi too. A coincidence in itself, that the teachers day fell on the birthday of the God considered a maestro/guru of education. Another coincidence being that Mother Teresa passed away that very day. So, in total, this day brings memories of all these incidents, good and bad, all happening on the same day making the day important in more than one ways.
Coincidence of ideas is what brought me to write about coincidences. Sometimes when I see a new software product or a new portal, I feel I have thought about this idea sometime in the past and how the idea of the product coincided with mine. I know, most of us programmers feel the same. But what separates us and them is initiative, and most importantly, vision, I guess.
One more coincidence is that I have already written a post about coincidence in the past :).
And yeah, in the meanwhile we had Blogger's day, the 31st of August*. Happy blogging to all bloggers. I am sure this one is not popularized by the greeting card companies. Whoever did it, it comes as a boon for people like me waiting for a topic to fill in some text and post it on my blog so that my reader(s) don't see the same post when they visit the blog.
* - For the unaware, 31st of August when written in DDMM format - 3108 looks like BLOG, hence it is considered Bloggers day.
Monday, August 28, 2006
stuck in second gear
Trying to find 5 good reasons why I should blog. Hope I find them as soon as possible, because until then this blog will be devoid of posts.
Feel free to help me. :)
On a side note, I never thought planets would be removed from the list. Would have reduced a lot of memory-work if done some 15 years back. And I guess the importance of the number 9 has reduced, now that the first example anyone would give to show how important 9 is doesn't hold anymore.
Bye Bye, Pluto. There will be lesser people in the coming generations who would know the name. If you are thinking for a choice of name for your grandson, you now have a choice, don't you. I just sincerely hope that someday the scientists won't come up with a revolutionary theory saying "There is nothing called a Solar System, Earth is the centre of the Universe", going back to Ptolemy's theory, and leaving us at Square One after centuries of research.
Feel free to help me. :)
On a side note, I never thought planets would be removed from the list. Would have reduced a lot of memory-work if done some 15 years back. And I guess the importance of the number 9 has reduced, now that the first example anyone would give to show how important 9 is doesn't hold anymore.
Bye Bye, Pluto. There will be lesser people in the coming generations who would know the name. If you are thinking for a choice of name for your grandson, you now have a choice, don't you. I just sincerely hope that someday the scientists won't come up with a revolutionary theory saying "There is nothing called a Solar System, Earth is the centre of the Universe", going back to Ptolemy's theory, and leaving us at Square One after centuries of research.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
aazaadi
A long vacation it was..away from my blog for so long. Contrary to what some of you might have guessed, no, it was not the mobile that kept me busy and away from the blog. There were things less mundane ;).
Independence day. This time commemorating the 60th year of liberty, freedom, democracy. (Are they different?). The day is always beautiful, with the all-colorful flags being hoisted, people wearing small flags - symbol of patriotism. And the day becomes more vibrant if you are traveling. Every village, town and city has this central market-place where the flag is hoisted and colorful ribbons hanging around. Truly picturesque - the saffron, white and green. :)
This time I couldn't stop but observe some minute things.
1. One of the TV news channels was asking for an SMS poll on "Did India do the right thing by opting for Democracy?". [Ya, they do charge you for expressing your opinion]
2. The three main problems our country is facing now, as evident from the PM's speech were not poverty, unemployment, population explosion, but were terrorism, terrorism, and again the same word.
3. Even this time politicians were asked General-Knowledge questions about Independence like who ruled us before 1947, who is Gandhi etc. but a more appropriate question would have been to ask them to spell the word Independence, not that they do not know or not that I am still obsessed with the spelling-bee..just for fun, you know ;).
4. One surprising news I read somewhere was that Gandhi went starving for one whole day after we were declared independent. Hunger-strike for want of independence and celebrating independence by starving..Strange..Same situation, one for the want of independence and the other because we got it.
Reminds me of a similar situation, of course less important. Once, in a bus, I had two choices. One - to sit shrunk beside a huge person because he was getting down in the next stop so that I get the window seat after he leaves, and the other a normal non-window seat for the rest of the journey. Obviously, the greedy me chose to sit beside the huge dude waiting for the window seat. The person left and I got the window seat after some 15 minutes. Happy. But 5 mins at the window seat, a beautiful girl comes up, smiles a big smile and asks for an exchange of seats. The generous me immediately accepts and leaves to the new place only to find one more huge dude sitting happily...and the rest of the journey, you can imagine.
Bad seat and a smile, like Gandhi's starving and independence. ;) Same situation before and after. One for the want of a better seat and the other because I got it.
All the above mentioned things apart, I think India has evolved and is evolving into a developed nation at a good pace. And these 60 years have seen India-Emerging.
Hope this continues and we become the next super power. Hope peace prevails and we do not have to stay terrified.
Jai Hind!
PS : Do you think the beautiful girl story was fiction? A) Yes. B)No. C)Can't say. Do not SMS your answers. :)
Independence day. This time commemorating the 60th year of liberty, freedom, democracy. (Are they different?). The day is always beautiful, with the all-colorful flags being hoisted, people wearing small flags - symbol of patriotism. And the day becomes more vibrant if you are traveling. Every village, town and city has this central market-place where the flag is hoisted and colorful ribbons hanging around. Truly picturesque - the saffron, white and green. :)
This time I couldn't stop but observe some minute things.
1. One of the TV news channels was asking for an SMS poll on "Did India do the right thing by opting for Democracy?". [Ya, they do charge you for expressing your opinion]
2. The three main problems our country is facing now, as evident from the PM's speech were not poverty, unemployment, population explosion, but were terrorism, terrorism, and again the same word.
3. Even this time politicians were asked General-Knowledge questions about Independence like who ruled us before 1947, who is Gandhi etc. but a more appropriate question would have been to ask them to spell the word Independence, not that they do not know or not that I am still obsessed with the spelling-bee..just for fun, you know ;).
4. One surprising news I read somewhere was that Gandhi went starving for one whole day after we were declared independent. Hunger-strike for want of independence and celebrating independence by starving..Strange..Same situation, one for the want of independence and the other because we got it.
Reminds me of a similar situation, of course less important. Once, in a bus, I had two choices. One - to sit shrunk beside a huge person because he was getting down in the next stop so that I get the window seat after he leaves, and the other a normal non-window seat for the rest of the journey. Obviously, the greedy me chose to sit beside the huge dude waiting for the window seat. The person left and I got the window seat after some 15 minutes. Happy. But 5 mins at the window seat, a beautiful girl comes up, smiles a big smile and asks for an exchange of seats. The generous me immediately accepts and leaves to the new place only to find one more huge dude sitting happily...and the rest of the journey, you can imagine.
Bad seat and a smile, like Gandhi's starving and independence. ;) Same situation before and after. One for the want of a better seat and the other because I got it.
All the above mentioned things apart, I think India has evolved and is evolving into a developed nation at a good pace. And these 60 years have seen India-Emerging.
Hope this continues and we become the next super power. Hope peace prevails and we do not have to stay terrified.
Jai Hind!
PS : Do you think the beautiful girl story was fiction? A) Yes. B)No. C)Can't say. Do not SMS your answers. :)
Friday, July 28, 2006
call, shoot and play.
After a serious post about EQs IQs and Qs, lets come back to things more mundane, more selfish and more earthly.
Presenting to the world, my latest possession, my new mobile the Nokia N72.
Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all. Isn't it?
Presenting to the world, my latest possession, my new mobile the Nokia N72.
Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all. Isn't it?
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Heiligenschein
We shall come back to the title later.
Place : XYZ school, First standard classroom.
Teacher to Ram - "Ram, how do you spell Bee?"
Ram - "B".
Teacher - "No, I am not asking about the alphabet B, I am asking about the insect?"
Ram - "It is B, teacher".
Teacher - "That’s wrong. Shyam, can you give me the correct spelling?"
Shyam - "It is B-E-E teacher."
Teacher - "Ram, see that’s the correct spelling. B-E-E. Not just B".
Well, this is the story that happens in every classroom. Poor students like Ram don't really understand why the spellings of words had to be so complex, without much relation between the arrangement of the alphabets and the way they sound :(. Why do we need the extra two 'e's when a single B would do. And his teacher had no answer either.
Neither do I.
Friday, July 14, 2006
one and one make two..
Look at the sunrise, look at the sunset, listen to the chirping of birds early in the morning, they are all beautiful. Periodicity, the feature that is common to them all, is the reason for that beauty. And periodicity it is, that should make this post beautiful. Its been one year since I have written a similar post, marking my first year at the firm and with this post, I enter into the third year, completing two years at my work place. Yay!
I was going over that post and I found interesting things - changes in perception in this past one year.
Well, for a starter, I am no more flattered to be a tax-payer. At least, after seeing how well my tax amount is spent in putting up huge hoardings of the so called "politicians". No. Not anymore flattered.
And I have lost track of stocks, sensex and other such stuff. They are no more beautiful, I mean no more "periodic". The sensex touches the peak one day and falls into an abyss the next day. Unreliable, aperiodic and so not-so-beautiful :)
One thing though remains same. I still miss the golden college days of care-free attitude and aimless life, though a bit less than what I did the last time. Past is past.
Coming to the changes,
As anyone would expect, I have grown. While the growth is in my weight which is an altogether different story, but the important point is I've Grown.
By the way, would growth in weight mean growth of the brain i.e., more brain cells, more thinking capability, more intelligence? I guess this is not one of the Questions without answers thing, because if that were true, sumo wrestlers would be scientists, right? So leaving it there.
I have read enough books(titles at the very least) and known enough authors the past year that I can successfully pass off as a "well-read" guy. Sidney Sheldon is a man, Ayn Rand is a woman, Monks sell Ferraris, Kaavya Vishwanathan copied stuff over, Harry Potter is a magic-kid. See, I have proved it.
Sadly, my wisdom hasn't yet taken me to a point where I have opinions about everything. If only that was there, I would have written hundreds of posts this year.
To name a few -
"What do you think about the reservation issue?" - I don't know.
"Is Sania Mirza the Indian youth Icon?" - Can't say.
"Do you agree with the ban on Da Vinci Code?" - Should I?
"Was Zidane's farewell pathetic?" - Not sure.
Looking forward to more changes and more challenges in the coming year.
And why did I cross the line of "posting ONLY about Questions, answers and such stuff"? Simple. The url of my blog was complaining that I was making justice to the title of the blog but not to the URL, so I had to write something about 'gklelsani', which is me, to be unbiased, balanced, thus periodic and again....yeah...beautiful :).
I was going over that post and I found interesting things - changes in perception in this past one year.
Well, for a starter, I am no more flattered to be a tax-payer. At least, after seeing how well my tax amount is spent in putting up huge hoardings of the so called "politicians". No. Not anymore flattered.
And I have lost track of stocks, sensex and other such stuff. They are no more beautiful, I mean no more "periodic". The sensex touches the peak one day and falls into an abyss the next day. Unreliable, aperiodic and so not-so-beautiful :)
One thing though remains same. I still miss the golden college days of care-free attitude and aimless life, though a bit less than what I did the last time. Past is past.
Coming to the changes,
As anyone would expect, I have grown. While the growth is in my weight which is an altogether different story, but the important point is I've Grown.
By the way, would growth in weight mean growth of the brain i.e., more brain cells, more thinking capability, more intelligence? I guess this is not one of the Questions without answers thing, because if that were true, sumo wrestlers would be scientists, right? So leaving it there.
I have read enough books(titles at the very least) and known enough authors the past year that I can successfully pass off as a "well-read" guy. Sidney Sheldon is a man, Ayn Rand is a woman, Monks sell Ferraris, Kaavya Vishwanathan copied stuff over, Harry Potter is a magic-kid. See, I have proved it.
Sadly, my wisdom hasn't yet taken me to a point where I have opinions about everything. If only that was there, I would have written hundreds of posts this year.
To name a few -
"What do you think about the reservation issue?" - I don't know.
"Is Sania Mirza the Indian youth Icon?" - Can't say.
"Do you agree with the ban on Da Vinci Code?" - Should I?
"Was Zidane's farewell pathetic?" - Not sure.
Looking forward to more changes and more challenges in the coming year.
And why did I cross the line of "posting ONLY about Questions, answers and such stuff"? Simple. The url of my blog was complaining that I was making justice to the title of the blog but not to the URL, so I had to write something about 'gklelsani', which is me, to be unbiased, balanced, thus periodic and again....yeah...beautiful :).
Monday, July 03, 2006
the double r.
Krrish, the movie with an extra r. And this extra r, rooted from the numerology factor(or whatever factor), must have been one of the reasons for the movie's success.Released as a sequel to the movie Koi Mil Gaya, which itself was a big mix of all the E.T. related movies, this one has gone to the next level. The protagonist is a gifted dude having all the powers of Batman, Superman, Spiderman and our very own Shaktimaan too ;), not to forget the Indian dance factor, he excels at this too. But the picturesque landscapes and the action sequences are no less than the best. The movie gets a big thumbs-up for these. And Hrithik is, without any doubt, the unanimous pick for the role.
I am no big movie reviewer and I am not suggesting you guys to go and watch this one. The point is something else. This movie was the first movie to be screened directly from a satellite, getting away with the reels and boxes, which have shown us movies since ages. Well the satellite thing may not be new to many of you, but it was, for me.And the place where I saw the movie was no big technology hub of South India. It was just an average town where people have hard time trying to figure out what a call center is. That's the reason for my surprise.
I was just astonished with the ease with which these boxes, from which the term 'box office' was derived (I guess), were so easily given up for good and replaced with a signal receiver uprooting the livelihood of so many "behind-the-projector" employees. I believe this is a straight hit on their pockets, for soon, more theatres will adopt to this new technology and more of these people will be jobless. Finding a replacement job would be tougher, since their skill-set is now totally a waste. The arms behind the rotating projector will be denied the work they are best at doing.
Its not just this one case, the rise of technology has resulted in the regression of so many such jobs. And this is the 'double r' I started off with. "Rise and Regression". Rise of technology and regression of unsophisticated manual jobs. And the world needs skilled labour able to operate this new technological innovations and not the plain old manual operators. What about them? Does this mean that a person who knows nothing but digging wells with a crowbar for his living, will now have to learn operating a bull-dozer?
Is this possible?
I am no big movie reviewer and I am not suggesting you guys to go and watch this one. The point is something else. This movie was the first movie to be screened directly from a satellite, getting away with the reels and boxes, which have shown us movies since ages. Well the satellite thing may not be new to many of you, but it was, for me.And the place where I saw the movie was no big technology hub of South India. It was just an average town where people have hard time trying to figure out what a call center is. That's the reason for my surprise.
I was just astonished with the ease with which these boxes, from which the term 'box office' was derived (I guess), were so easily given up for good and replaced with a signal receiver uprooting the livelihood of so many "behind-the-projector" employees. I believe this is a straight hit on their pockets, for soon, more theatres will adopt to this new technology and more of these people will be jobless. Finding a replacement job would be tougher, since their skill-set is now totally a waste. The arms behind the rotating projector will be denied the work they are best at doing.
Its not just this one case, the rise of technology has resulted in the regression of so many such jobs. And this is the 'double r' I started off with. "Rise and Regression". Rise of technology and regression of unsophisticated manual jobs. And the world needs skilled labour able to operate this new technological innovations and not the plain old manual operators. What about them? Does this mean that a person who knows nothing but digging wells with a crowbar for his living, will now have to learn operating a bull-dozer?
Is this possible?
Monday, June 26, 2006
go, score a goal.
Twenty three years ago it was on the same day (June 25th) that the underdogs had made history and since then cricket has been "THE GAME" for us, Indians. We have been watching, eating, drinking, talking and walking cricket since then and this, by no means, is an exaggeration. Any product starting from a fairness cream to a car, if endorsed by a cricketer is supposed to fetch more market. Cricket is our religion and cricketers our Gods. Streets are named, tattoos printed, strikes held in the names of these men. And the game has become one of the top grossers in terms of business.
Why would I write all this? If it were not for the hoarding of a star hotel in
Reminds of something I heard about "Rose Days" and "Daffodil days" being popularized by greeting-card publishing companies trying to boost their business.
I guess by the next world cup, we will have chicken footballs like the drumsticks, to savor, while watching the so-called favorite team sweating out in a penalty shoot-out( er, what’s a penalty shoot-out! ). :)
Till then, peace.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
look around, we are lucky !!
I am talking about the generation born in the early 80's and have now seen slightly more than 20 years of this world.And what a transition it has been. Technology innovation hit its peak during these 20 years and the leaps in innovation are byfar amazing.Looking at the surroundings then and now, I feel we are lucky to see so much of development in so less a time, at least in this part of the world, an average town in India.
Lets start with the television. This piece of technology was unheard of in my early years. The common man was happy listening to songs, cricket commentary and even movies in the then famous transistor. Suddenly the idea of seeing a picture besides listening to voices amazed many. Well, I should say, the flip side of this was that it subdued the imagination of the listeners. People would have imagined readers on radios to be as beautiful as their voices sounded. Not sure how it turned out to be after the innovation of TV ;). It did not stop there. Colors came in. Monochrome became a thing of the old-stone age. Channels grew. We did not have to be content with the single channel broadcasting an alien-language movie in the afternoon, every weekend. Slowly choices multiplied with the cable TV revolution. We had an unlimited range to select from. But then, earlier, people listened to news on the national channel and had their own opinions. And now, with the explosion of news channels, people's perceptions and opinions are dictated by the source of news they opt for. Biased !
There were many innovations and discoveries before the 80's but the ones I am talking about are the ones that are of interest to the common man. Things that only could be imagined earlier became, in this period, part of the day-to-day life of a common man and now, at the end of these 20 years, we cannot imagine life without these, TV being one of them.
Then comes the telephone. Hand-written letters are a thing of the past. How many of you now write letters by hand when you can talk to the person you want to on this fancy thing called the telephone. Though the telephone was invented way before our period, it is during this period that it became the essential part of the common man's life. This too had its own share of evolution. From the hard-to-execute trunk calls, to optical fiber transmission to the now in-place mobile phones, there has been radical development in the way people communicate. And all of this in so short a period as 20 years :). Seems like every year, we had something new to see. How lucky were we!! And now, mobiles with cameras, GPRS, 2.5G etc etc and by the time I finish writing this post, a patent would have been filed about the high-end-TV-cum-mobile-cum-what-not !! How fast can we adapt to these things?? Seems like the technology is outnumbering the growth percentage our brain can handle ;). If only our lessons of the Grahambell's innovation did not have to be replaced so soon with the 3G and 4G mobile technologies !!
There could be so many generations witnessing these developments. But it is a prize for our generations to have grown and understood things as they evolved and changed.
And the next one, is right before you. Sitting like a rock before you, it is slowly replacing your brain. It is called the Computer. Unlike the TV which had a radio and the telephone which had snail-mail, this thing does not have a predecessor. Some say it is calculator++, but we all know it is more than that. And words wont suffice to describe how much this thing has changed the way life goes. From a mere calculator, to a word processor, to the latest high-end super computers, added with the all-powerful "internet" this thing has grown by leaps and bounds, amazing even its own inventors! People managed every task without the help of things like the computers before they came into picture. But now it has so woven into the lives of every other person that imagining life without them is impossible. And thanks to this particular innovation, I have a job now!
Enough of reporting technology innovations over the past two decades. I can go on and on with the list. The point of this discussion is not that. To have seen so many things, which were completely unimaginable earlier and now have become part of our daily life, in such short period of 20 years makes our generation the ideal one to have born in.:) No generation earlier and later could have had this privilege. Lucky, that we are ....
Lucky that we are !Lazy that we've become !!
Lets start with the television. This piece of technology was unheard of in my early years. The common man was happy listening to songs, cricket commentary and even movies in the then famous transistor. Suddenly the idea of seeing a picture besides listening to voices amazed many. Well, I should say, the flip side of this was that it subdued the imagination of the listeners. People would have imagined readers on radios to be as beautiful as their voices sounded. Not sure how it turned out to be after the innovation of TV ;). It did not stop there. Colors came in. Monochrome became a thing of the old-stone age. Channels grew. We did not have to be content with the single channel broadcasting an alien-language movie in the afternoon, every weekend. Slowly choices multiplied with the cable TV revolution. We had an unlimited range to select from. But then, earlier, people listened to news on the national channel and had their own opinions. And now, with the explosion of news channels, people's perceptions and opinions are dictated by the source of news they opt for. Biased !
There were many innovations and discoveries before the 80's but the ones I am talking about are the ones that are of interest to the common man. Things that only could be imagined earlier became, in this period, part of the day-to-day life of a common man and now, at the end of these 20 years, we cannot imagine life without these, TV being one of them.
Then comes the telephone. Hand-written letters are a thing of the past. How many of you now write letters by hand when you can talk to the person you want to on this fancy thing called the telephone. Though the telephone was invented way before our period, it is during this period that it became the essential part of the common man's life. This too had its own share of evolution. From the hard-to-execute trunk calls, to optical fiber transmission to the now in-place mobile phones, there has been radical development in the way people communicate. And all of this in so short a period as 20 years :). Seems like every year, we had something new to see. How lucky were we!! And now, mobiles with cameras, GPRS, 2.5G etc etc and by the time I finish writing this post, a patent would have been filed about the high-end-TV-cum-mobile-cum-what-not !! How fast can we adapt to these things?? Seems like the technology is outnumbering the growth percentage our brain can handle ;). If only our lessons of the Grahambell's innovation did not have to be replaced so soon with the 3G and 4G mobile technologies !!
There could be so many generations witnessing these developments. But it is a prize for our generations to have grown and understood things as they evolved and changed.
And the next one, is right before you. Sitting like a rock before you, it is slowly replacing your brain. It is called the Computer. Unlike the TV which had a radio and the telephone which had snail-mail, this thing does not have a predecessor. Some say it is calculator++, but we all know it is more than that. And words wont suffice to describe how much this thing has changed the way life goes. From a mere calculator, to a word processor, to the latest high-end super computers, added with the all-powerful "internet" this thing has grown by leaps and bounds, amazing even its own inventors! People managed every task without the help of things like the computers before they came into picture. But now it has so woven into the lives of every other person that imagining life without them is impossible. And thanks to this particular innovation, I have a job now!
Enough of reporting technology innovations over the past two decades. I can go on and on with the list. The point of this discussion is not that. To have seen so many things, which were completely unimaginable earlier and now have become part of our daily life, in such short period of 20 years makes our generation the ideal one to have born in.:) No generation earlier and later could have had this privilege. Lucky, that we are ....
Lucky that we are !Lazy that we've become !!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
early rays...
Not a single post in the last fifteen days, :(. I wonder if I would get anything to write in the future!
Every time I read a newspaper or a book I wonder how those authors manage to write thousands of words. It seems impossible to me. Whenever I try to pen down a post, it does not exceed hundred words, how much ever I try. But this time, I decided my post would be at least a thousand words. So I started off thinking about all the happenings in the country, so many hot issues, people supporting agitations and some opposing them and as usual authors writing volumes about the happenings and their precious "opinions". But no, they are not my kind and so I decided not to write about them.
Then, I got this brilliant idea. So here's my post of a thousand words.
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say.
A display of my photographic skills, titled "SoBrightTheProOfSun" [searching for anagrams?? I don't think there is one. :)] Location : Kanyakumari, India. Time : Sunrise.
Every time I read a newspaper or a book I wonder how those authors manage to write thousands of words. It seems impossible to me. Whenever I try to pen down a post, it does not exceed hundred words, how much ever I try. But this time, I decided my post would be at least a thousand words. So I started off thinking about all the happenings in the country, so many hot issues, people supporting agitations and some opposing them and as usual authors writing volumes about the happenings and their precious "opinions". But no, they are not my kind and so I decided not to write about them.
Then, I got this brilliant idea. So here's my post of a thousand words.
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say.
A display of my photographic skills, titled "SoBrightTheProOfSun" [searching for anagrams?? I don't think there is one. :)] Location : Kanyakumari, India. Time : Sunrise.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
of flutters and after effects...
The Butterfly effect. This one would go straight to the top of my favorite movie list. Ten minutes into the movie and I thought I had a new post in hand. This movie not only added fuel to my imagination but also connected some of the missing links in it.
Being a programmer myself, I could see the whole story as a series of if-else statements each condition leading to results miles apart. I guess everyone who have watched this one, would take a few minutes to reminisce the various paths they have trodden over their lifetime, take time to think "What if it was the other way ...?" and like the great Robert Frost would say to themselves "And that has made all the difference". Seems reasonable.
The only difference between reality and the movie, seen by my programmer's mind, would be the missing 'while(!satisfied)' loop, wrapping all the if-elses, which is absent in the real world. If only that was there, I am not sure we would love our lives as much as we do now, if at all we do. After all, even the hero was content with the original state of events.
Coming to programming and an other favorite movie of mine, the Matrix, I imagine Programming the Matrix would be lot easy with this idea of the butterfly effect. If all such effects are carefully taken care of and every path thus emerging made to end in one final situation, which is the desired state of the Matrix, the Architect would not have needed to make six versions of the same thing. Guess that's what makes programming difficult. Every other day you find a case you have not dealt in your code and that one becomes "The One" resulting in the fall of the existing version and a need to write a new one arises.
One more concept which made the movie more interesting was that of Probability. The force which drives and connects the events together. A lot of events might have happened. Instead, just one of them happened, the destined one. And what made that event a destined one? Yes. Probability. This again reminds me of one of the good books I have read "God's Debris" which states that God is part probability. Now if God was the creator, He is the one who controls events on this earth, then with all probability, He must be Probability or the one who defines and manages it. Perfect.
Incomplete, convoluted and uncertain ...
Being a programmer myself, I could see the whole story as a series of if-else statements each condition leading to results miles apart. I guess everyone who have watched this one, would take a few minutes to reminisce the various paths they have trodden over their lifetime, take time to think "What if it was the other way ...?" and like the great Robert Frost would say to themselves "And that has made all the difference". Seems reasonable.
The only difference between reality and the movie, seen by my programmer's mind, would be the missing 'while(!satisfied)' loop, wrapping all the if-elses, which is absent in the real world. If only that was there, I am not sure we would love our lives as much as we do now, if at all we do. After all, even the hero was content with the original state of events.
Coming to programming and an other favorite movie of mine, the Matrix, I imagine Programming the Matrix would be lot easy with this idea of the butterfly effect. If all such effects are carefully taken care of and every path thus emerging made to end in one final situation, which is the desired state of the Matrix, the Architect would not have needed to make six versions of the same thing. Guess that's what makes programming difficult. Every other day you find a case you have not dealt in your code and that one becomes "The One" resulting in the fall of the existing version and a need to write a new one arises.
One more concept which made the movie more interesting was that of Probability. The force which drives and connects the events together. A lot of events might have happened. Instead, just one of them happened, the destined one. And what made that event a destined one? Yes. Probability. This again reminds me of one of the good books I have read "God's Debris" which states that God is part probability. Now if God was the creator, He is the one who controls events on this earth, then with all probability, He must be Probability or the one who defines and manages it. Perfect.
Incomplete, convoluted and uncertain ...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Be stupid. Be safe(r).
Not often does someone instigate me to write technical stuff on my blog. I like to keep my blog away from the complexities of compilers, intricacies of the interpreters, profundity of programs and the difficulties associated with databases. I like to keep this piece of the web simple and naive.
But posts like these prompt me to describe my small observations in this [in]secure world of user names and passwords.
How good would it be if no one could crack your password. Because your password is not in the dictionary. It is not one of your pet's, relative's or for that matter your name. And the best part is, it is not tough to remember either. It is not one of the complex capital and small letter combinations.
It does not include vague numbers in between. It neither has weird special characters in it.
Sounds like a perfect fit for all of our innumerable mail accounts, currently abandoned because the passwords were forgotten! Doesn't it?
And what would that password be? Well, it is just a mis-spelt word in the dictionary.
I know, it would take just a small amount of extra time for the crackers to check for all the permutations of the words in the dictionary. And bang, the password is cracked. But what if the cracker is not doing so. What if he is a bit stupid? And what if we are stupid enough not to know the correct spellings. That would make our password safe, without our knowledge.
That means "stupid people who generally misspell words and continue this habit even in choosing passwords are comparatively safe than people who spell words correctly". Sounds like I am re-inventing the wheel. May it be so.
Ignorance is bliss..proved again !
But posts like these prompt me to describe my small observations in this [in]secure world of user names and passwords.
How good would it be if no one could crack your password. Because your password is not in the dictionary. It is not one of your pet's, relative's or for that matter your name. And the best part is, it is not tough to remember either. It is not one of the complex capital and small letter combinations.
It does not include vague numbers in between. It neither has weird special characters in it.
Sounds like a perfect fit for all of our innumerable mail accounts, currently abandoned because the passwords were forgotten! Doesn't it?
And what would that password be? Well, it is just a mis-spelt word in the dictionary.
I know, it would take just a small amount of extra time for the crackers to check for all the permutations of the words in the dictionary. And bang, the password is cracked. But what if the cracker is not doing so. What if he is a bit stupid? And what if we are stupid enough not to know the correct spellings. That would make our password safe, without our knowledge.
That means "stupid people who generally misspell words and continue this habit even in choosing passwords are comparatively safe than people who spell words correctly". Sounds like I am re-inventing the wheel. May it be so.
Ignorance is bliss..proved again !
Monday, April 24, 2006
the man, the legend.
Way back in 1992, for the first time that day, when a cricket match was being broadcast, I did not switch off the TV. Before that day, I could never understand the game. So many men clad in white, complex rules of the game, it was not as simple as kicking a ball into a goal post. And, the inset view in which two people seemed that they wanted to meet each other but never did, and instead, crossed over.
But that day I thought I would give it a shot and try to understand the game. Not that the day was special. But it was this person's feat which really inspired me to do so. And the person was Sachin Tendulkar, the legend himself. No, as many would guess, it was not his batting that caught my attention but a catch, he took. Catching a ball miles high and with such ease, he made it look so simple. That day I became a member of the cricket fan club. From catches to matches, my passion grew, about cricket and about the man's batting.
From that day till today, the reason I watch cricket is Sachin. Not me alone, he is the reason lakhs of people watch cricket today. He is God. For without him and his elegant style, I would have quit watching cricket long back. Every time I think 'This is it, we would get no more from this man', he comes back strong to prove his Numero Uno position. No man can equal his skill. Batsmen may come, batsmen may go. But Sachin is class apart.
A tribute to this cricket God on his birthday.
Thank You Sachin, for all the cricket.
Happy Birthday.
Monday, April 10, 2006
a trip - then and now
"Children, we are all going to the zoological park tomorrow."
"Get dressed in yo
"Yesssssssss, teacher" said all the students in unison.
And the day after, i.e., the day the students were to write the essay, one of the students pulled out his piece of paper which had the names of the animals he saw at the zoo and started writing his essay. He figured he had to sharpen his pencil. Not having a sharpener, he decided to use the wall for the purpose and started his essay. 'A Trip to the Zoo' was the title and he continued writing .. "Yesterday all the students of our class went to the
And the student was awarded 3.5/5 as he could not fare as well as the others, especially at the spellings and as he missed the scientific names.
Poor fellow, he neglected them as unnecessary.
Fifteen years later, he thought he would re-visit the place, this time with full freedom, not needing to stand in line, more importantly not requiring to write an essay about it. But his blog, devoid of posts since long, yelled at him "If you don't have anything to write, why don't you write about your trip to the zoo" in the voice of his teacher. So he decided, he would go for it. But laziness got the better of him and instead of writing the whole thing again, he reproduced part of his childhood essay. If he had to write it now, he would be awarded a 5/5, now that he had access to spell-checkers and search engines to get the scientific names.
Monday, March 27, 2006
sports and movies
Having seen quite some movies involving one or the other sport, I can assuredly say all these have the same pattern, except for one or two which obviously go ahead and become Oscar material.
To start with, the hero, who with utmost probability is an underdog waiting to prove his worth, or a complete newbie to the game.
And how many times did an underdog team win the cricket world cup? ( Cricket, because that’s the game I am most familiar with ). Once in 30 years?
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
keywords used as keys?
If only the search engines could find us answers to every question under the sun and beyond, this blog wouldn't have existed in the first place.
Thanks to the mighty search engine that points to this blog when asked for the toughest question on the planet, the hits on the blog have increased two fold. Two fold?? Don't get surprised. That means there is one more person other than me who browses through this blog, ambitiously trying to find answers while I am busy trying to find questions ( or answers or both or what?? ) myself.
So dear reader, if you have accidentally tumbled upon this piece of the web while in the quest for bigger, broader questions, a big thank you.
We share the same interests. I have tried, and will try, to find more questions, more answers and thus more posts and keep you interested.
But for queries on answers to pendulums, to life's questions, to interview questions etc, all I can say is, there is a possibility you may find them here but the probability is infinitesimally small. As the rule says, there are always questions you can't find answers for.
I guess this post would increase the relevancy of this blog to the words 'questions' and 'answers' and make it to the top of the search results.
Secretly, I hope it did, but otherwise I hope there are better references on the World Wide Web than this blog that will result in the search engines.
Happy searching.
Thanks to the mighty search engine that points to this blog when asked for the toughest question on the planet, the hits on the blog have increased two fold. Two fold?? Don't get surprised. That means there is one more person other than me who browses through this blog, ambitiously trying to find answers while I am busy trying to find questions ( or answers or both or what?? ) myself.
So dear reader, if you have accidentally tumbled upon this piece of the web while in the quest for bigger, broader questions, a big thank you.
We share the same interests. I have tried, and will try, to find more questions, more answers and thus more posts and keep you interested.
But for queries on answers to pendulums, to life's questions, to interview questions etc, all I can say is, there is a possibility you may find them here but the probability is infinitesimally small. As the rule says, there are always questions you can't find answers for.
I guess this post would increase the relevancy of this blog to the words 'questions' and 'answers' and make it to the top of the search results.
Secretly, I hope it did, but otherwise I hope there are better references on the World Wide Web than this blog that will result in the search engines.
Happy searching.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
days to remember
1809 was the year. February 12th was the date. It was an unforgotten day in history.
Two great people, who would be remembered for hundreds of years to come, were born on that day.
One was Abraham Lincoln and the other Charles Darwin, one the greatest leader of all time and the other, the prodigy behind the "Natural Selection".
And 175 years later, exactly on the same day a person with the capabilities of Lincoln and the rationale of Darwin was born, or so he thought.
He spent the next few years dreaming about standing in the woods, reading books, and delivering speeches to rocks, repeating the "for the people, by the people and to the people" phrase once in a while. Poor thing, little did he know that Democracy was already a reality and his country had achieved it long before he was born.
Once he realized that, he tried the other route - origin of species and natural selection theories. Learning that individual organisms possessing advantageous heritable traits are more likely to survive, he started thinking what advantageous traits mean for different species. And a few more years later, still not being sure of what to do, he set out on a tour on the lines of Darwin's tour of the Archipelago, to find answers to few of the questions, if possible.
The tour covered most places in South India, historical monuments to modern plazas, hill stations to beaches, mountain peaks to sand dunes, religious places to spiritual ones, natural forests to artificial parks, wild life sanctuaries to botanical gardens, walks in the clouds and seas. Over all, it was a fun trip. And the most exciting thing was that he entered his twenty third year during this trip.
And he was me.
So dear friends, now that I have finished my tour of the Archipelago kind, get ready to be hit by a new theory in the lines of Evolution or Natural Selection. May be I found answers to some of the questions!
Two great people, who would be remembered for hundreds of years to come, were born on that day.
One was Abraham Lincoln and the other Charles Darwin, one the greatest leader of all time and the other, the prodigy behind the "Natural Selection".
And 175 years later, exactly on the same day a person with the capabilities of Lincoln and the rationale of Darwin was born, or so he thought.
He spent the next few years dreaming about standing in the woods, reading books, and delivering speeches to rocks, repeating the "for the people, by the people and to the people" phrase once in a while. Poor thing, little did he know that Democracy was already a reality and his country had achieved it long before he was born.
Once he realized that, he tried the other route - origin of species and natural selection theories. Learning that individual organisms possessing advantageous heritable traits are more likely to survive, he started thinking what advantageous traits mean for different species. And a few more years later, still not being sure of what to do, he set out on a tour on the lines of Darwin's tour of the Archipelago, to find answers to few of the questions, if possible.
The tour covered most places in South India, historical monuments to modern plazas, hill stations to beaches, mountain peaks to sand dunes, religious places to spiritual ones, natural forests to artificial parks, wild life sanctuaries to botanical gardens, walks in the clouds and seas. Over all, it was a fun trip. And the most exciting thing was that he entered his twenty third year during this trip.
And he was me.
So dear friends, now that I have finished my tour of the Archipelago kind, get ready to be hit by a new theory in the lines of Evolution or Natural Selection. May be I found answers to some of the questions!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
toppers are no harry potters
After two posts about examinations, here comes one about post-examinations.
Examinations bring forth "toppers". These sect of people are unique. There seem to be many rumors about these people, most of which people think, are true. But are they really true? Let's see.
"They cannot solve real world problems."
Does that mean they can easily derive the equations for a double pendulum exhibiting chaotic behavior but do not know that a pendulum clock works by keying it?
"They know formulae but don't know where to use them."
Won't they know to use Newton's Third law when somebody slaps them?
"They memorize everything and have no creative answers for anything."
Even to the "What is the answer to Life, Universe and Everything?"?
"They are not the sport kind."
Solving Rubik's cube in record time doesn't count. Does it?
"They are un-cool."
Writing poetry using a programming language isn't cool?
Having the 'telnet song' as one of your favorites is okay?
I am not sure, but with the kind of toppers I have seen, I don't think much of this is true.
No, I was never "the topper". Guess that makes me koool automatically, does it?
Examinations bring forth "toppers". These sect of people are unique. There seem to be many rumors about these people, most of which people think, are true. But are they really true? Let's see.
"They cannot solve real world problems."
Does that mean they can easily derive the equations for a double pendulum exhibiting chaotic behavior but do not know that a pendulum clock works by keying it?
"They know formulae but don't know where to use them."
Won't they know to use Newton's Third law when somebody slaps them?
"They memorize everything and have no creative answers for anything."
Even to the "What is the answer to Life, Universe and Everything?"?
"They are not the sport kind."
Solving Rubik's cube in record time doesn't count. Does it?
"They are un-cool."
Writing poetry using a programming language isn't cool?
Having the 'telnet song' as one of your favorites is okay?
I am not sure, but with the kind of toppers I have seen, I don't think much of this is true.
No, I was never "the topper". Guess that makes me koool automatically, does it?
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
whats in the year?
Having posted about examinations in my last post, I just realized that in the year 2005, I haven't written a single exam.
So far, every year I had written one or more exams and got at least one promotion, like Class 1 to Class 2, Intermediate to Engineering etc, leave alone the first 2, 3 years. Even during those years I have had improvements from crawling to walking to talking etc.
But, 2005 is the only year I've got no promotion :(. Is that good or bad? I am not sure which one is better - A year without examinations or a year without any progress.
Coming to how 2005 has been, at least during the later part of the year, I could manage some posts on this blog. I became a regular blogger, "regular" as in my dictionary. Hope this year, the "regularity" will be as per any other blogger's dictionary. No, that is not my "new year resolution". Coming to resolutions for the New Year, I follow the great advice given by someone - "Broaden your target so much so that you will hit it the first time".
In general, there have been great many significant events in 2005, like the discovery of the Chimpanzee genome map, the hurricanes, the success of google, completion of 100 years of Einstein's discoveries and many more I am unaware of. Bad news is there was none in the last 100 years to beat Einstein, 'beat' as in disprove/improve his discoveries. That leaves you and me a chance, I guess.
All the best for 2006, dear readers of this blog. Hope I find more questions to fill this space.
An excerpt from the book God's Debris, I have been reading recently.
"We don’t understand why electricity travels. We don’t know why light travels at a constant speed forever. All we can do is observe and record patterns."
That suggests there are always "Questions without answers" in this world. Let's see.
So far, every year I had written one or more exams and got at least one promotion, like Class 1 to Class 2, Intermediate to Engineering etc, leave alone the first 2, 3 years. Even during those years I have had improvements from crawling to walking to talking etc.
But, 2005 is the only year I've got no promotion :(. Is that good or bad? I am not sure which one is better - A year without examinations or a year without any progress.
Coming to how 2005 has been, at least during the later part of the year, I could manage some posts on this blog. I became a regular blogger, "regular" as in my dictionary. Hope this year, the "regularity" will be as per any other blogger's dictionary. No, that is not my "new year resolution". Coming to resolutions for the New Year, I follow the great advice given by someone - "Broaden your target so much so that you will hit it the first time".
In general, there have been great many significant events in 2005, like the discovery of the Chimpanzee genome map, the hurricanes, the success of google, completion of 100 years of Einstein's discoveries and many more I am unaware of. Bad news is there was none in the last 100 years to beat Einstein, 'beat' as in disprove/improve his discoveries. That leaves you and me a chance, I guess.
All the best for 2006, dear readers of this blog. Hope I find more questions to fill this space.
An excerpt from the book God's Debris, I have been reading recently.
"We don’t understand why electricity travels. We don’t know why light travels at a constant speed forever. All we can do is observe and record patterns."
That suggests there are always "Questions without answers" in this world. Let's see.
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